WHAT DOES A NEGATIVE COVID TEST MEAN
How well COVID-19 tests work in people who feel healthy is still unknown.
The test may overlook the small but growing amounts of virus in someone who has not yet developed symptoms, who could still go on to spread COVID-19 without knowing it. A negative test result does not rule out infection.
Understanding false negatives from COVID-19 tests is especially important because people who do not yet know that they’re sick play a major role in the spread of COVID-19.
It’s still unclear how good COVID-19 tests are at finding these presymptomatic cases, but the timing of the test matters. As soon as the coronavirus finds its way into a new host, it hijacks cells to copy itself. The amount of virus builds over this time, peaking at or right before symptom onset, which can take two to 14 days but usually takes an average of five or six. Accordingly, public-health authorities have advised getting tested about four days after exposure.
This is a reasonable recommendation, given the knowns, but surprisingly little data exists on how early COVID-19 tests can detect infection before symptom onset.
For individuals, however, the FDA cautions that negative results do not rule out infection. “Negative results must be considered in the context of an individual’s recent exposures, history, presence of clinical signs and symptoms consistent with COVID-19.”
Consider again the decision to visit elderly relatives after a negative test. “If you have symptoms or you work in a place where you’re at high risk for exposure, then even with a negative test, you might want to think really hard about it,” says Steven Woloshin, a co-director of the Center for Medicine and Media at the Dartmouth Institute.
Feeling Happy is Essential for Survival During Quarantine
Experts thinks that it is essential more than ever says Professor Holmes at UCLA
“Happiness increases motivation, creativity and our problem solving, as we figure out how to live and work in this quarantine environment and manage our stresses and anxiety,”
In case you’re wondering, Holmes said it’s also perfectly OK to allow yourself to be happy at a time when people are ill and out of work.
Being happy is healthy, Holmes said, and it helps us be in a frame of mind to help others.
She says anxiety is a future-focused emotion, so it’s important to keep your mind in the present.
Holmes offers these additional tips to help achieve happiness:
Move around a bit: Even just 30 minutes of movement a day — it could be yoga, it could be moderate exercise — has been shown to reduce stress, boost mood, improve cognizant functioning and increase one’s sense of self-efficacy.
Maintain structure in your day: Be diligent in how you spend your day. Begin with a morning routine, whether you’re leaving the house or not. If you’re working from home, set up a place in your house that is the designated workspace. When you go to that spot in the morning, it communicates to you and others that this is the start of your work day.
But just as important, make sure you structure breaks from work. “Given that work and personal life are happening in the same space,” Holmes said, “make sure to set up time for breaks away from your computer.”
Take a vacation in your mind: Maybe you missed out on a family vacation due to the pandemic. While there may be a sense of loss, it doesn’t have to mean you can’t still have that vacation feeling. “We found in our research that some of the benefits of vacation don’t actually require getting on an airplane and going somewhere,” Holmes said.
In experiments, some subjects were told to treat their weekends like a vacation, and not given instructions about what exactly a vacation should be. Others were told to treat the weekend as a regular weekend. On Monday, the “vacationing” group returned to work happier. “The mindset shift played out to influence people’s enjoyment throughout the weekend,” Holmes said.
Stay connected: Holmes said social connection — feeling connected to people in our life and having a sense of belonging — is the most important ingredient to being happy now, and in general. We’re physically distancing, but we don’t have to socially distance.
Sleep’s Effects on Physical Health
Getting enough sleep at night gives your body plenty of energy during the day, but sleep deprivation affects so much more than just your energy level.
Sleep helps you feel better – If you sleep for a full eight hours (or more) each night, your body and mind will run smoothly from head to toe. Muscles and joints, in addition to the rest of your organs, will function at normal levels. This will give you the confidence to tackle all tasks throughout the day.
Sleep gives you balance – Keeping a normal sleep cycle helps your hormones to stay balanced. If you’re sleep deprived, these hormones can be thrown off. This is especially important when it comes to eating.
When the hormone that tells your brain if your body is full becomes unbalanced, your body craves filling foods like carbs and sugars. This can cause dramatic weight gain, in addition to other health problems. Your body’s natural release of insulin is disturbed when sleep deprived, which can increase your risk for diabetes. High blood pressure and heart disease are also risk factors of sleep deprivation.
Sleep gives you clarity – Have you ever felt dizzy or off balance after a poor night’s sleep? That’s because your body is trying to ration its remaining energy. Lack of sleep can throw you off balance and make you fall or stumble, causing injuries.
Compelling Links Between Depression and Gut Inflammation
A number of studies have confirmed that gastrointestinal inflammation can play a critical role in the development of depression, and that healthy bacteria may be an important part of the treatment. For example, a Hungarian scientific review published in 2011 made the following observations:
1.Depression is often found alongside gastrointestinal inflammation, as well as autoimmune, cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases, and chronic low-grade inflammation is a significant contributing factor in all of these. Thus, "depression may be a neuropsychiatric manifestation of a chronic inflammatory syndrome"
2.A number of clinical studies have shown that treating gastrointestinal inflammation with probiotics, omega-3 fats and vitamins B and D also improves symptoms of depression by attenuating proinflammatory stimuli to your brain
3.Research suggests the primary cause of inflammation may be dysfunction of the "gut-brain axis."The gut-brain connection is well-recognized as a basic tenet of physiology and medicine, so this isn't all that surprising. Your gut acts as a second brain, and is in fact created from the identical tissue as your brain during gestation.
If you consume loads of processed foods and sugars, your gut bacteria will be severely compromised because processed foods tend to decimate healthy microflora. This leaves a void that is filled by disease-causing pathogenic bacteria, yeast and fungi that instead promote inflammation
Other research has shown the probiotic Lactobacillus rhamnosus has a marked effect on GABA levels — an inhibitory neurotransmitter involved in regulating many physiological and psychological processes — in certain brain regions, lowering the stress-induced hormone corticosterone. As a result, anxiety- and depression-related behavior was lessened. Strong connections between the gut microbiome and schizophrenia and bipolar disorder have also been found.
How Sugar Influences Your Risk of Depression
A high-sugar diet can trigger or contribute to depression in a number of ways, including by:
- Distorting your microflora by nourishing microbes that are detrimental to health
- Triggering a cascade of chemical reactions in your body known to promote chronic inflammation
- Elevating your insulin level, which can have a detrimental impact on your mood and mental health by causing higher levels of glutamate to be secreted in your brain. Glutamate has been linked to agitation, depression, anger, anxiety and panic attacks
- Suppressing activity of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a growth hormone that promotes healthy neurons. BDNF levels are critically low in both depression and schizophrenia, which animal models suggest might actually be causative
I too believe the dietary answer for treating depression starts with limiting or eliminating refined sugars (especially processed fructose) and grains, as all forms of sugar feed bad bacteria in your gut and promote systemic-wide inflammation. As a standard recommendation, I suggest limiting your daily fructose consumption from all sources to 25 grams per day or less.
Cutting out processed foods will also significantly reduce your exposure to genetically engineered ingredients, which have also been implicated in chronic inflammation and the destruction of healthy gut bacteria, as well as pesticides such as glyphosate — another culprit in both microbiome disruption and inflammation. Keep in mind that conventionally grown foods may also be contaminated with pesticide residues so, ideally, aim for as organic a diet as you can.
Dietary Keys to Overcoming Depression
Aside from cutting out sugars, make sure you're getting sufficient amounts of healthy fats in your diet. Examples of healthy saturated fats include avocados, butter made from raw, grass fed organic milk, organic pastured egg yolks, coconuts and coconut oil, raw nuts and grass fed meats. You may need as much as 50 to 80 percent of your daily calories in the form of healthy fats such as these.
Beyond that, animal-based omega-3 fat may be the single most important nutrient to battle depression, It's particularly important when combating more serious problems such as psychosis and schizophrenia. Good sources of animal-based omega-3 include fatty fish that are also low in mercury, such as wild-caught Alaskan salmon, sardines and anchovies.
If you don't eat these types of fish on a regular basis, it would be advisable to take a high-quality omega-3 supplement such as krill oil, which has a number of benefits over fish oil, including better absorption. Lastly, to rebalance your gut flora, be sure to eat plenty of:
•Fiber-rich foods. This means more vegetables, nuts and seeds (not grains). Recent research confirms that in order to work, the fiber must be unprocessed. Processed supplement fiber such as inulin powder does not provide gut bacteria with what they need.
Organic whole husk psyllium is a great fiber source, as are sunflower sprouts and fermented vegetables, the latter of which are essentially fiber preloaded with beneficial bacteria. Flax, hemp and chia seeds are other excellent fiber sources.
•Fermented foods. By eating a variety of fermented and cultured foods such as fermented vegetables (all kinds), kombucha, kefir or raw yogurt, natto, kimchi and others, you will get a wide assortment of beneficial bacteria into your system. If you, for whatever reason, will not eat fermented foods, then a high-quality probiotic supplement is certainly recommended. Just understand you probably will not reap as great a benefit as if you were actually eating fermented foods.
Specific Nutrients for Brain Health
Doctors have used of niacin (vitamin B-3) & Vit B6 for treatment of psychiatric disorders,
According to Doctor Walsh, there's compelling evidence to suggest nutrients involved in the synthesis or functioning of neurotransmitters dictate mental function. Hence certain nutritional deficiencies can significantly raise your risk of mental health problems. Nutrients that have a powerful influence on mental health include:
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Zinc |
Copper |
Selenium |
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Niacin (B-3) |
Vitamin B-6 |
Vitamin B-12 |
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Folates |
Vitamin D (Having a level below 20 ng/mL can raise your risk of depression by 85 percent compared to having a level greater than 30 ng/ml |
S-adenosylmethionine (SAMe)The |
The idea is to normalize brain function through nutritional interventions.
Cass also stresses that one of the first steps in treating any mental health problem is to clean up your diet and address your gut health. Otherwise, you'll have virtually no chance of getting emotionally and mentally well.
21st Century Reason for Depression
The pervasive use of microwave radiation in the form of cellphones, cellphone towers, Wi-Fi, computers, smart meters, baby monitors and the expected trillion internet things all invade our cells with energy exposure they were never designed for.
It turns out that the mechanism of how they cause harm was revealed about five years ago by Professor Emeritus Martin Pall, He, found out that the electromagnetic fields (EMFs) trigger voltage gated calcium channels (VGCC) in the cell membranes that will release a million calcium ions per second from the extracellular space into the intracellular space.
When the sensors in the brain are activated, they will release hormones and neurotransmitters that have been shown to be associated with depression and anxiety, and there is fairly strong evidence they are a major factor in autism. They can also lead to cardiac arrhythmias.
So, if you suffer with depression, anxiety, autism or arrhythmias, it would be wise to be obsessive about limiting your EMF exposure.
Holistic Mental Health Suggestions
Regardless of the nature or severity of your mental health problem, to successfully treat it, you need to take a holistic approach. Rarely will medication be the sole answer.
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Get adequate daily movement and regular exercise Studies show there is a strong correlation between improved mood and aerobic capacity. There's also a growing acceptance that the mind-body connection is very real, and that maintaining good physical health can significantly lower your risk of developing depression in the first place. Exercising creates new GABA-producing neurons that help induce a natural state of ca |
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Clean up your sleep hygiene Make sure you're getting enough high-quality sleep, as sleep is essential for optimal mood and mental health. A fitness tracker that tracks your sleep can be a useful tool. The inability to fall asleep and stay asleep can be due to elevated cortisol levels, so if you have trouble sleeping, you may want to get your saliva cortisol level tested with an Adrenal Stress Index test. |
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Combat inflammation Keeping inflammation in check is an important part of any effective treatment plan. Switching to a whole food diet can go a long way toward lowering the inflammation level in your body and brain. |
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Optimize your vitamin D level Vitamin D deficiency is another important biological factor that can play a significant role in mental health, especially depression. A double-blind randomized trial, published in 2008 concluded that supplementing with high doses of vitamin D "seems to ameliorate these symptoms indicating a possible causal relationship. Ideally, maintain your vitamin D level between 40 and 60 ng/mL year-round. If you cannot get sufficient sun exposure to maintain this level, taking an oral vitamin D3 supplement would be advisable. Just remember to also take vitamin K2 and magnesium, as these all work together. |
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Add to your self-help tool bag Slowing your breathing increases your partial pressure of carbon dioxide (CO2), which has enormous psychological benefits and can quickly reduce anxiety. |
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Beneficial herbs and supplements: SAMe, 5-HTP and St. John's Wort SAMe is an amino acid derivative that occurs naturally in all cells. It plays a role in many biological reactions by transferring its methyl group to DNA, proteins, phospholipids and biogenic amines. Several scientific studies indicate that SAMe may be useful in the treatment of depression. 5-HTP is another natural alternative to traditional antidepressants. When your body sets about manufacturing serotonin, it first makes 5-HTP. Taking 5-HTP as a supplement may raise serotonin levels. The evidence suggests 5-HTP outperforms a placebo when it comes to alleviating depression — more than can be said about antidepressants. |
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What to Do If Someone You Know Is Depressed
Perhaps one of the most helpful things you can do if you have a friend or family member who struggles with depression is to help guide them toward healthier eating and lifestyle habits, as making changes can be particularly difficult when you're feeling blue — or worse, suicidal.
If you are feeling desperate or have any thoughts of suicide, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, a toll-free number: (800) 273-TALK (8255), or call 911, or simply go to your nearest hospital emergency department. You cannot make long-term plans for lifestyle changes when you are in the middle of a crisis.
Memory Enhancers
Wouldn’t it be great if someone made Miracle-Gro for your brain? “Drink this twice a day and you’ll feel great and have a terrific memory!” Nice promise, right?
That’s a lot like what hormones do. When the various glands and organs that produce these chemical messengers—the pancreas, thyroid, adrenals and more—are in sync, you have a secure sense of wellbeing. But when they’re not and levels of hormones are either too low or too high, you can feel pretty lousy. And because the brain is in such close communication with hormones—signaling their release and being affected by them—differences in the amounts produced can easily cause brain fog and mood problems.
Although there are literally hundreds of hormones in the body that affect the brain, seven of the most important are Thyroid, Cortisol, DHEA, Estrogen, Progesterone, Testosterone and Insulin. Take estrogen: Women naturally cycle through rising and falling levels of estrogen right up to and past menopause, when estrogen drops off and cognitive function wanes. Or thyroid: Between 5 and 25 percent of the world’s population, men and women, are thought to have thyroid problems.Ok
Why not make sure your hormones are at optimal levels so that your brain and memory are in top condition—throughout your life?
Neurohormonal deficiencies are a key risk factor according to Dr. Amen, who identifies and treats the 11 risk factors that can steal your memory and your mind. Research underscores that addressing all of them is the best way to keep your memory strong.
Here are all 11 risks, summed up Dr. Amen
B – Blood Flow
R – Retirement/Aging
I – Inflammation
G – Genetics
H – Head Trauma
T – Toxins
M – Mental Health
I – Immunity/Infection Issues
N – Neurohormone Deficiencies
D – Diabesity
S – Sleep Issues
You’ll want to schedule an appointment with your healthcare provider to have the levels of various hormones measured:
- Thyroid panel (includes TSH, Free T3, Free T4 and Thyroid antibodies; ask for the lab’s standards to know what its normal range is)
- DHEA (normal levels differ according to age and sex)
- Cortisol
- Free and total serum testosterone (for men and women)
- Estrogen and progesterone (for women)
- Zinc
To keep the production of your hormones in sync, it helps if you:
- Avoid hormone disruptors like BPAs, phthalates, parabens and pesticides
- Lift weights to boost testosterone
- Consider hormone replacement with bio-identical hormones, when necessary
- Take a good multivitamin/mineral, vitamin D, magnesium and an omega-3 EPA/DHA supplement daily (recent research underscores the link between DHA, estrogen production and brain health)
- Consider supplementing with zinc (to boost testosterone), l-tyrosine (for thyroid), DHEA, probiotics and ashwagandha (for cortisol)
- Boost estrogen with fiber, flaxseeds, sunflower seeds, beans, garlic, yams, foods rich in vitamins C and Bs, beets, parsley, anise seed, red clover, licorice hops, sage
- Increase thyroid with selenium-rich foods like seaweed and sea vegetables, brassicas and maca
- Boost testosterone with pomegranate, olive oil, oysters, cocont, brassicas, garlic
- Avoid: sugar and animal meats raised with hormones or antibiotics, as these can disrupt your hormones.
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